FAO: Prime Minister Theresa May:

Theresa May: Petition to change the law in the United Kingdom to make it mandatory that the Police and Coroner’s Office have to inform a family of the death of a relative

My name is David Felstead. I am the brother of Carole Myers (formerly known as Carol Felstead). Carol was a vulnerable, mentally ill adult who died on 29 June 2005. However my family were only notified of her death on 14 July 2005 (by a Coroner’s Officer). The reason that we were not notified of Carol’s death was because on 29 June an individual claimed that she was Carol’s executor and next of kin. This individual was allowed to arrange a cremation service for Carol which was planned to take place on 15 July 2005, She also emptied Carol’s flat and disposed of her personal possessions, including her car. She had no legal entitlement to arrange the cremation or to dispose of Carol's possessions. The cremation service was cancelled at the request of my family and Carol was later given a family burial in her home town.

At present, a process exists which permits anyone to arrange a burial or cremation without the deceased person’s family ever being informed of their relative’s death. This can be done without having to produce any supporting legal documents. There is no legal process in place that will prevent an illegal burial or cremation. The police do not have a legal obligation to contact the family - nor do the Coroner's Office. The process needs to be changed so that it is not possible to arrange an illegal cremation or burial. It must be made mandatory by law that the family of the deceased is informed about the death of their relative. It should not be possible to cremate or bury anyone without any legal entitlement to do so.

Police documents written on the day that Carol died irrefutably demonstrate that both the police and the Coroner’s Office were aware of the existence of our family, yet they decided not to contact us. We were finally contacted 2 weeks subsequent to Carol's death after a letter written by Carol's brother (ironically on the day that Carol died) was handed in to the Coroner. The cremation arranged by the individual who claimed to be the next of kin was prevented from going ahead by my family less than 24 hours before it was due to take place.

Because we were not contacted about Carol’s death until 15 July, we did not see her before she was buried (her body was placed in a sealed coffin); nor were we present or represented at her post-mortem. We were not allowed to identify Carol. Nor were we able to attend the pre-inquest hearing into her death because we were not aware that she had died.

An Inquest into Carol's death in August 2005 returned an Open Verdict.

Once we were in possession of the facts, we submitted a detailed complaint in writing to the police about the individual who had arranged the cremation service. The Metropolitan Police Service conducted a 15 month investigation. The investigation was deliberately made non-prosecutable by the police, because it was not lawfully processed, it was not allocated a crime reference number, case reference number or a Crown Prosecution Service reference number, nor any other unique identifying reference number. For obvious reasons, all police investigations must have unique identifiable case reference numbers. Without one a case can not be prosecuted. In our instance that procedure was abandoned. The investigation was not recorded on the Crime Report Information System (CRIS).This fact has been confirmed in writing by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). 

The circumstances of Carol’s death are a scandal. They have made national and international news headlines around the world - with over 25 published newspaper articles on the case. The original inquest was deeply flawed due to the serious omission of a key witness. In consequence, we applied to the Attorney General to quash the inquest. On 19 December 2014 (case reference: CO/1603/2014), after a fiat had been granted by the Solicitor General, the inquest was quashed at the High Court sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, under section 13(1)(b) of the Coroners Act 1988.

Following Pre Inquest Review Hearings in the Royal Courts of Justice in March, June and September 2015, a fresh inquest took place on 30 September 2015, also at the Royal Courts of Justice. The inquest returned an Open Verdict and the exact cause of Carol's death remains unknown.

We have fought for 10 years to establish the truth about Carol's life and death. We do not want another family to go through the ordeal we have been through. Please sign my petition, so that a change can be made in the law to make it mandatory that the police and Coroner’s Office have to inform a family about the death of their relative.

Kind Regards

David Felstead.